On Farm Phenotypic Characterization of Indigenous Cattle in Bako Tibe and Gobu Sayo Districts of Oromia Region, Ethiopia

The study was conducted in Bako Tibe and Gobu Sayo districts of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia, from October 2014 to January 2015 with the objective to undertake on-farm phenotypic characterization of indigenous cattle breed (Horro) in the study area. Field studies and collection of data were carried out through semi-structured questionnaire, focus group discussions, key informants, observations and linear body measurements of sample cattle and secondary data collection from different sources. A total of 120 households (60 from each district) were randomly selected for semi structured questionnaire interview and 240 cattle were sampled for morphological description and linear body measurements. SAS and SPSS software were used to analyze the data. The study result revealed that overall cattle herd size was 9.67±3.34 heads per household and was not significantly different (p<0.05) between districts. The dominant coat color in both female (45%) and male (75%) was red followed by brown (20%, and 12%) in female and male respectively and followed by black (9.5%) in female and male (5%). The overall Mean heart girth, flank girth, height at withers and horn length were 133.08±6.23,157.2±07.0,107.9±6.93 and 23.05±6.65cm respectively, and significantly different for both sex and district (p < 0.05). Body length, rump width and length, canon bone length and circumference of Horro cattle were 100.49±8.14, 8.94±1.04, 19.46±1.92, 24.07±1.32, 12.63±1.27cm, respectively. Moderate and significant (p<0.001) positive correlation was found among the linear body measurements. Morphological characteristics of the breed need to be complemented by genetic characterization for fully exploiting the potential of the breed